The aim of this study is to explore sex buyers’ perceptions and experiences of purchasing sex, and to study how the purchase of sex is constructed as a social problem in Swedish social work practice. The empirical material consists of interviews with 30 men with experiences of purchasing sex and with ten social workers conducting counselling or outreach work with men who purchase sex. The dissertation is a compilation thesis that consists of four papers, that have been published in international peer-review journals. The first paper focuses on how men who buy sex as one-time visitors navigate between commercialization and intimacy in a national context criminalizing their actions. The paper explores the construction of meaning and intimacy in commercial relationships for Swedish men buying sex, and how these men describe relational practices and strategies used when they purchased sex. The second paper explores the construction of intimacy among men engaged in longterm transactional relationships with women. The paper focuses on the meaning of transactions for intimacy in long-term paid sexual relationships. The third paper explores how men who purchase sex in a context in which their activities are criminalized understand and perceive risk. The paper focuses on individual assessments of risk in relation to experiences of crime, exploitation, and stigma. The fourth paper aims at exploring social workers’ understanding of the purchase of sex as a social problem. The study focuses on social workers’ approaches to the purchase of sex in relation to values, professional practices, and political goals, and how they navigate these aspects in their encounters with individuals who purchase sex. The four papers show how individual experiences are understood, navigated, and conceptualized in relation to social interaction and social norms. The participants in both sub-studies navigate between their own experiences and perceptions, moral values, and social norms in regard to the purchase of sex in Sweden. Both the sex buyers and the social workers conceptualize and make sense of the purchase of sex based on their individual experiences as sex buyers or as social workers meeting sex buyers, but they also relate to normative ideas about the purchase of sex and about ‘sex buyers’.

Considering an increasingly repressive focus on sex buyers in recent years, the focus of this study is to explore social work in Sweden targeting individuals who purchase sex. The aim of this study is to explore social workers' understanding of the purchase of sex as a social problem. More specifically, the study focuses on social workers' approaches to the purchase of sex in relation to values, professional practices, and political goals, and how they navigate these aspects in their encounters with individuals who purchase sex. Based on interviews with 10 social workers who meet such individuals, an inductive thematic analysis has been employed. The participants navigated between focusing on the individual sex purchaser and his situation, and having moral opinions on the issue, with some being positive to force change through repressive measures. The participants tried to navigate social work's role in relation to social policy and political ambitions regarding the purchase of sex in Sweden, and did this by navigating between doing moral work, being diplomats or specialists. They did moral work both as individuals and as working groups, which was influenced by moral values, professional ideals, and ideas about social work's role in relation to the judiciary system.

Previous research on commercial sex has described fluidity between different forms of relationships, whereby commercial sexual relationships can be both long-term and viewed as intimate from the buyer's perspective. This article explores the construction of intimacy in long-term commercial relationships. More specifically, it examines the meaning of transactions in long-term paid sexual relationships in Sweden. Interviews were conducted with 23 Swedish men with experience purchasing sex as 'regulars'. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted. Findings show that the emotional experience is a key focus for these men when they purchase sex. The emotions involved are not delimited in time and space but are experienced both within and outside of the actual sexual encounter. Such emotions can be understood as the very precondition for the experiences of intimacy, while at the same time they create difficulties for the men who purchase sex. Experiences of intimacy are experienced in the ambiguity between unbounded and bounded authenticity and by not drawing a clear line between emotional subjectivity and consumer subjectivity.

This article is based on a study exploring how men who purchase sex in Sweden experience and navigate risk. The focus is on individual assessments of risk in relation to experiences of crime, exploitation and stigma. Based on interviews with 30 Swedish men who purchase sex, an inductive thematic analysis has been applied. The participating men had different strategies to avoid crime and exploitation and they navigated in relation to stigma when purchasing sex. Their risk assessments and conceptualizations of purchasing sex were based on own experiences and on the normative discourse on commercial sex in Sweden. Their fields of action were structured through discipline, governing and responsibilization, and they tried to distance themselves from being defined as ‘sex buyers’ and to purchase sex in ‘good’ ways.

The relationship between commercial sex and intimacy has been in focus in a number of studies on the purchase of sex, often distinguishing between one-time visitors and regular customers. This article is based on a study exploring how men who buy sex as one-time visitors navigate between commercialization and intimacy in a Swedish context. Based on interviews with 29 Swedish men purchasing sex, an inductive thematic analysis has been applied. The findings show how the men in this study balance between excitement and trust when purchasing sex, and how trust work is crucial for the purchase of sex not to be experienced as dangerous and instead pleasurable.

What do we know about the extent of young people’s experiences of sex for compensation in the Nordic countries? Are such experiences addressed by social initiatives and how do legal measures affect them? This report is based on country studies focusing on knowledge about sex for compensation among young people in the Nordic countries. The five country studies show how research on the extent of, and the motivations and conditions for, young people selling sex in the Nordic countries is rather scarce and that there are few social initiatives that target young people specifically. The interviews with service providers and the literature reviewed point to individual vulnerabilities related to young people’s experiences of compensational sex. In order to develop preventive measures more knowledge on structural factors related to experiences of compensational sex is needed.